____________________________________________________________ _________________ "How Shock Rock Harms Our Kids" By Peggy Mann as appeared in the July 1988 edition of The Reader's Digest Commentary by Professor Faulken Text transcribed by Professor Faulken ____________________________________________________________ _________________ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * T E X T * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Recently several sixth-graders at Marion Elementary School in Belle Vernon, Pa., asked their music teacher about the meaning of some rock-music lyrics. One record was by the group Venom, whose message was spelled out on the album cover: "We're possessed by all that is evil; the death of your God we demand. We spit at the virgin you worship, and sit at Lord Satan's left hand." In the other album, "Hell Awaits", by the band Slayer, the lyrics glorified "the relentless lust of rotting flesh." The teacher, 23-year-old MIchael Whaley, gently tried to explain the lyrics. The next day, a host of parents phoned the principal incensed that a teacher was discussing Satanism and necrophilia with their children. These irate parents had probably never listened to the records their kids were buying. Like many other adults, they didn't realize that some of today's rock music extols everything from rape, incest and homosexuality to sadomasochism and bestiality - in words too graphic to be printed here. Other lyrics glamorize drug and alcohol, and glorify death and violent rebellion, ranging from hatred of parents and teachers to suicide - the ultimate act of violence to oneself. Parents who are vaguely aware of the content of some lyrics tend to accept their youngsters insistence that "no one listens to the words. We just like the beat." Or they think that only a small minority of teen-agers buy such records. Both beliefs are unfounded. FILLING IN THE BLANKS. Teen Vision, Inc., a Carnegie, Pa., nonprofit group that evaluates music and media, found obscene material prevalent in up to one-third of all current rock releases studied. Since studies show that the average teen-ager listens to rock music four hours a day, we are clearly not dealing with an inconsequential fringe phenomenon. Teen Vision's founder and directory, Bob DeMoss, a former disc jockey and rock musician, has traveled through 30 states speaking to parents, teachers, and kids. From tests he distributes to grade-school students, he finds they not only know the words but often get the message. For example, one questions draws on the title of a popular Samantha Fox song, "Touch Me" (I Want Your _______)" Eighty percent of fourth-graders knew the missing word was "body". They could also sing along with such lilting refrains as George Michael's "I Want Your Sex". One of the aims of Teen Vision is to help children make ethical choices about what they will accept or reject. "This isn't easy," says DeMoss, "when the message is anything goes." Especially when such music earn huge profits. Prince's album "Purple Rain" which won a Grammy award and has sold over 14 million copies, includes "Darling Nikki," a song that describes Prince's sexual encounter with a girl he met "in a hotel lobby, masturbating with a magazine." Another popular Prince entry was "Sister" from the "Dirty Mind" album, which informs listeners that "my sister never made love to anyone but me. Incest is everythin it's said to be." "SHOOT OUT MY BRAINS!" Experts are understandably concerned abou the impact such lyrics have on the normal sexual development of children, Dr. L. D. Tashjian, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Philadelphia, has studied the effects of rock on youngsters, and he notes: "We find seven- and eight-year-olds who listen to lyrics extolling sexual sadism, bondage, bestiality, and at this very impressionable age such messages can seriously warp their sexual orientation. The younger child or the potentially disturbed youth is liable to be profoundly or dangerously influenced." Joe Stuessy, a music- theory professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, adds, "There is a new element in the music, a meanness of spirit - outright hatred - that was not present in the early days of rock." He compares Chuck Berry's sympathetic "School Days," in which the singer seems to have his arm around the teen-ager saying, "I know how you feel, man," to W.A.S.P.'s "School Daze" - with its violent message, "Burn it down!" The leading proponents of mean-spirited rock are the heavy-metal bands. They started two decades ago on the fringe of the record market, and are now in the mainstream. "According to our research," says DeMoss,"about 60 percent of metal lyrics rely on destructive, depressing or degrading themes." Adds psychiatrist Robert S. Demski, chief of staff at Laurel Ridge Hospital in San Antonio: "Once something is learned at an early age, it may be difficult to unlearn. By repeated exposure to cynicism, hatred and indiscriminate destruction, especially without the balance of parental love and counsel, children become desensitized to brutality and degradation." A theme receiving increased attention in contemporary rock is suicide. Some 600,000 teen suicide attempts are recorded annually. According to experts, many of the 5000 teen suicides each year are linked to depression fueled by rock music and lyrics that glamorize sadistic violence and drug abuse, as well as suicide itself. There is, of course, no way to determine whether suicide would have occured in any case, but don't tell that to the parents of 19-year-old John McCollum from Indio, California. When he killed himself, the coroner's report stated, "Decedent committed suicide by shooting self in head with .22- caliber pistol while listening to devil music." John, who had been getting an earful of Ozzy Osbourne albums for five hours, was wearing stereo headphones at the time of his death. He was hearing such messages as, "Suicide Solution", and "Can you help me? Oh, shoot out my brains, ohhh yeah...I tell you to end your life" from "Paranoid." PUBLIC ALERT. Such lyrics are not regulated to out-of-the-way record or porn shops. They are readily available to youngsters of all ages in record stores throughout the nation, on radio and occasionally on rock-video networks. What can be done? The first step is parental awareness. In 1985 Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker, discovered that her seven-year-old daughter's sex education "was beginning at an early age, via her bedside window" - so this mother took action. Together with Pam Hower, Sally Nevius and Tipper Gore, wife of Sen. Albert Gore, Jr. (D., Tenn.), she started Parent's Music Resource Center (PMRC). The publicity generated by PMRC and the National Coalition of Television Violence was instrumental in getting the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on rock-music content in September, 1985. Since the hearings, violence in music videos has been reduced. But, as Jennifer Norwood, executive director of PMRC, puts it, "As violence goes down, explicit and pornographic sex seems to increase, and often the violence remains." The Senate inquiry led to an agreement with the Recording Association of America (RIAA), which represents the producers of over 80 percent of recorded music. The RIAA promised that albums with "explicit material" either would have lyrics printed on the jacket or would carry a "parental advisory" label. According to a PMRC survey of recordings released from January 1986 through December 1987, less than half containing explicit or violent lyrics had labels or printed lyrics on the outside of the jacket. Some printed the warnings almost too tiny to read. Others made a joke of the label - "Warning: Do not play if accompanied by an adult." BEGINNING AT HOME. Most rock music is not detrimental, and benefit performances have demonstrated that it can even be a force for social good. But we cannot continue to ignore the obscene, pornographic and violent elements in rock's growing undercurrent. There are steps parents can take. The PMRC recommends starting at home. Susan Baker notes: "Our children are bearing the burden of adult irresponsibility. Start early and tune in to your children and your world. Instead of shouting, 'Cut down that noise!', listen to the lyrics and talk about them in light of your family's values. As a parent, you have every right to decide what kind of messages you want in your house." PMRC also suggests a media watch. Monitor your local radio and TV broadcasts and, if offensive material is aired, write down the objectional words and scenes, name and date of the program, and its commercial sponsors. Then fire off a letter of protest to the local station manager and the program's sponsors. Send a tape to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a transcript to the RIAA and your elected state and national represenitives. There is another approach: the law. In two major decisions, the U.S. Supreme Cout has held that "obscene material is unprotected by the First Amendment." The federal government has strict laws against the mailing, interstate transporting and importing of obscene materials, and a broadcasting law prohibiting obscene and indecent programming. The FCC has the authority to fine or suspend the liscenses of broadcasters who violate the criminal law against obscene, profane or indecent broadcasting. But until recently, the agency has not enforced the statute. Forty-three states have laws against the sale of obscene materials, and sellers can be arrestted. If your state does not have such a law, ask your legislator to propose one. OBJECT LESSON. Parents in San Antonio have shown just how effective community pressure can be. They were horrified to find thousands of preteens attending concerts by KISS, W.A.S.P. and other heavy-metal bands that exalted murder, sexual sadism, bestiality and drugs. So in 1985 parents persuaded the city council to design a first-of-its-kind ordinance requiring parents or legal guardians to accompany children under 14 to concerts featuring material deemed obscene to children. The impact of the ordinance, says Bobbie Mueller, head of Community Families in Action, has been significant. Attendance by preteens has dropped substantially and performances are more restrained. Even the so-called '60s generation gave rock music its biggest push - favors more control. According to a recent poll in Rolling Stone magazine, 48 percent of that age group - most of them now parents themselves - see today's music as a "bad influence" on young people. They support a rating system for records similar to one for movies. "In many ways what's happening in music today is very corrupting," says rock superstar Bruce Springsteen. "Let's help our children toss out the garbage." _____________________________ For further information, write (and enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelop) to Parents' Music Resource Center, 1500 Arlington Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22209 or Morality in Media, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, NY. 10115. Send complaints to the Federal Communications Commision, Mass Media Bureau, Enforcement Division, Washington, D.C. 20554. * * * * * * * * * * * * C O M M E N T A R Y * * * * * * * * * * * * The way I'm gonna go about this is to address each point in the above text as it is printed below. These comments will be made in the parentheses. Recently several sixth-graders at Marion Elementary School in Belle Vernon, Pa., asked their music teacher about the meaning of some rock-music (The first misconception: this isn't rock music - it's heavy metal. The label "Rock Music" is way too broad a title to give to music that covers anything from top 40 to punk to heavy metal.) lyrics. One record was by the group Venom, whose message was spelled out on the album cover: "We're possessed by all that is evil; the death of your God we demand. We spit at the virgin you worship, and sit at Lord Satan's left hand." In the other album, "Hell Awaits", by the band Slayer, the lyrics glorified "the relentless lust of rotting flesh." (Who has the power to say that those subjects up there are 'obscene'? That's a fucking opinion, and these people know it.) The teacher, 23-year-old MIchael Whaley, gently tried to explain the lyrics. The next day, a host of parents phoned the principal incensed that a teacher was discussing Satanism and necrophilia with their children. These irate parents had probably never listened to the records their kids were buying. (Why? Because they're too fucking lazy. It seems that only when the government tells them to (through the PMRC) do so, then they do. What the hell does this say about these so-called outraged parents?) Like many other adults, they didn't realize that some of today's rock music extols everything from rape, incest and homosexuality to sadomasochism and bestiality - in words too graphic to be printed here. (Oh, spare us, please! Like I said before, who the hell in this country, or any other, has the right to define obscene material as being such? The government? Yeah, right. Tell that to our founding fathers, huh? They prospered off stuff that the British would have considered 'obscene'.) Other lyrics glamorize drug and alcohol (as do beer commercials, television shows and movies), and glorify death and violent rebellion, (Oh, not violent rebellion! That's what are fucking country was founded on - I guess the REVOLUTIONARY WAR was pretty peaceful, right?) ranging from hatred of parents and teachers to suicide - the ultimate act of violence to oneself. (Hmmm....let's just see here. Why the hell do teenagers commit suicide anyway? I'd always thought it was used as an escape from personal stress and pressure - constructed mainly from friction between parents and teachers. (Perhaps that is the reason for the rebellion anyway!) Granted, there are also boyfriend/girlfriend suicides, but hey, do YOU actually believe that someone could commit suicide just by listening to a record? If they could, they are seriously fucked up. For them, it goes beyond rock music into psychological malfunctioning.) Parents who are vaguely aware of the content of some lyrics tend to accept their youngsters insistence that "no one listens to the words. We just like the beat." (Okay, let's just have the accusing fingers pointed in kids faces.) Or they think that only a small minority of teen-agers buy such records. Both beliefs are unfounded. (Umm, until you define this obscene music as a definite catagory, I believe it's very well-founded.) FILLING IN THE BLANKS. Teen Vision, Inc., a Carnegie, Pa., nonprofit (have to get that in for the IRS!) group that evaluates music and media, found obscene material prevalent in up to one-third of all current rock releases studied. (DEFINE OBSCENE, DAMNIT!) Since studies show that the average teen-ager listens to rock music four hours a day, we are clearly not dealing with an inconsequential fringe phenomenon. Teen Vision's founder and directory, Bob DeMoss, a former disc jockey and rock musician, has traveled through 30 states speaking to parents, teachers, and kids. (Hey, you notice what I did? That list goes immediatly from this writer's perception of this guys audience: Parents, to Teachers, to Children. Kinda tells you that the kids don't really listen to what is being said, does it?) From tests he distributes to grade-school students, he finds they not only know the words but often get the message. For example, one questions draws on the title of a popular Samantha Fox song, "Touch Me" (I Want Your _______)" Eighty percent of fourth-graders knew the missing word was "body". They could also sing along with such lilting refrains as George Michael's "I Want Your Sex". (One, so what - they watch MTV alot. That's a problem for the parents to deal with: too much TV watching. As for 'getting the message' stated above, I didn't see one result in this DeMoss test that showed that these kids knew what material they were listening to, and what it all meant.) One of the aims of Teen Vision is to help (try more like...MAKE) children make ethical choices about what they will accept or reject. "This isn't easy," says DeMoss, "when the message is anything goes." (Uh huh, that's right. Too bad, that idea isn't held solely by performing artists. Try people who make movies, write books, and program TV shows. Get real, define a target.) Especially when such music earn huge profits. Prince's album "Purple Rain" which won a Grammy award and has sold over 14 million copies, includes "Darling Nikki," a song that describes Prince's sexual encounter with a girl he met "in a hotel lobby, masturbating with a magazine." (Uh oh, let's ban sex from our children's lives. It's just HOW THEY WERE CREATED!!) Another popular Prince entry was "Sister" from the "Dirty Mind" album, which informs listeners that "my sister never made love to anyone but me. Incest is everything it's said to be." (Uh huh, okay. I bet these people also take every word of the bible as being historical truth. These song lyricists use something called SYMBOLISM (not NESSESSARILY in the song above (I don't know Prince's private life) but I know in a hell of alot of other songs, that is a major tool) and the PMRC better realize that.) "SHOOT OUT MY BRAINS!" Experts are understandably concerned abou the impact such lyrics have on the normal sexual development of children, Dr. L. D. Tashjian, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Philadelphia, has studied the effects of rock on youngsters, and he notes: "We find seven- and eight-year-olds who listen to lyrics extolling sexual sadism, bondage, bestiality, and at this very impressionable age such messages can seriously warp their sexual orientation. The younger child or the potentially disturbed youth is liable to be profoundly or dangerously influenced." (Yeah, let's just see how disturbed these youths are. C'mon, weren't they saying this twenty years ago with hippies and yippies? There are some people who just don't like rock music, and will try to attack it at any time possible.) Joe Stuessy, a music-theory professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, adds, "There is a new element in the music, a meanness of spirit - outright hatred - that was not present in the early days of rock." (Uh huh, there is also a meanness out in the real fucking world which is what heavy metal wakes these kids up to. Remember that.) He compares Chuck Berry's sympathetic "School Days," in which the singer seems to have his arm around the teen-ager saying, "I know how you feel, man," to W.A.S.P.'s "School Daze" - with its violent message, "Burn it down!" (Ummm, ever think that this is exactly what the kids are thinking nowadays?) The leading proponents of mean-spirited rock are the heavy-metal bands. They started two decades ago on the fringe of the record market, and are now in the mainstream. "According to our research," says DeMoss,"about 60 percent of metal lyrics rely on destructive, depressing or degrading themes." (Ha! How about rephrasing that to, 'realistic, honest portrayals of the real world?) Adds psychiatrist Robert S. Demski, chief of staff at Laurel Ridge Hospital in San Antonio:"Once something is learned at an early age, it may be difficult to unlearn. (Yeah, let's not shield our kids from the realities and hardships of the real world. Maybe if someone of these parents gave their kids some credit and intelligence, and maybe talked to them once in a while, these kids might make their own educated decisions about music. Until that time, these people are being fuckin' tyrants.) By repeated exposure to cynicism, hatred and indiscriminate destruction, especially without the balance of parental love and counsel, children become desensitized to brutality and degradation." A theme receiving increased attention in contemporary rock is suicide. Some 600,000 teen suicide attempts are recorded annually. According to experts, many of the 5000 teen suicides each year are linked to depression fueled by rock music and lyrics that glamorize sadistic violence and drug abuse, as well as suicide itself. There is, of course, no way to determine whether suicide would have occured in any case, but don't tell that to the parents of 19-year-old John McCollum from Indio, California. When he killed himself, the coroner's report stated, "Decedent (NICE FUCKING NAME FOR A KID, OBVIOSULY DISTURBED, WHO TOOK HIS LIFE) committed suicide by shooting self in head with .22- caliber pistol while listening to devil music." (What the hell, please tell me, is 'devil music'? Please, tell me.) John, who had been getting an earful of Ozzy Osbourne albums for five hours, was wearing stereo headphones at the time of his death. He was hearing such messages as, "Suicide Solution", and "Can you help me? Oh, shoot out my brains, ohhh yeah...I tell you to end your life" from "Paranoid." (Ha! Uh huh, let's just ask Osbourne about his real motives for writing 'Suicide Solution'. I believe his reply, and this isn't concrete however, was as a deterrent for suicide. I don't mean to sound uncaring, or unfeeling, but I feel it's kinda the kids own, (and the parents) fault that he committed suicide. I mean, for some reason, the idea that he just did it because Ozzy told him to just doesn't stand up so well in my book. How about some other surrounding circumstances about this suicide besides 'devil music'? These parents just don't fucking understand the world that teenagers live in. As a matter of fact, I kinda believe that these people just didn't want to accept the idea that there kid, who they planned, turned up something that they didn't like. Was it their fault? No way! It was the music's fault! They also don't give kids an ounce of credible intellect. They make us look like a bunch of half-assed losers, with our dicks in our mouths.) PUBLIC ALERT. Such lyrics are not regulated to out-of-the-way record or porn shops. They are readily available to youngsters of all ages in record stores throughout the nation, on radio and occasionally on rock-video networks. (Why don't you say MTV when you mean MTV??) What can be done? The first step is parental awareness. In 1985 Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker, discovered that her seven-year- old daughter's sex education "was beginning at an early age, via her bedside window" - so this mother (No, try more like the truth: this senator's wife took action) took action. Together with Pam Hower, Sally Nevius and Tipper Gore, wife of Sen. Albert Gore, Jr. (D., Tenn.), (Oh, Tipper, the one who smoked reefer while listening to Floyd? Oh yeah, sure.) she started Parent's Music Resource Center (PMRC). The publicity generated by PMRC and the National Coalition of Television Violence was instrumental (Oh yeah, and maybe a little pressure on their husbands) in getting the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on rock-music content in September, 1985. Since the hearings, violence in music videos has been reduced. But, as Jennifer Norwood, executive director of PMRC, puts it, "As violence goes down, explicit and pornographic sex seems to increase, and often the violence remains." (Does that sentence back there make any sense to you? Didn't for me.) The Senate inquiry led to an agreement with the Recording Association of America (RIAA), which represents the producers of over 80 percent of recorded music. (Duh, I think these people must be real blind. Who the hell produces these 'offensive' records? Try somewhere along the lines of independant record producers, not the people in the RIAA) The RIAA promised that albums with "explicit material" either would have lyrics printed on the jacket or would carry a "parental advisory" label. According to a PMRC survey of recordings released from January 1 [well, where is the rest of the file? -ed.]